Parents vetted to check they're not paedophiles before being allowed to Christmas carol services with their children

Parents are being forced to undergo checks to prove they are not paedophiles simply to accompany their children to school Christmas carol events.

Graham McArthur, headmaster of Somersham primary school in Cambridgeshire, said that criminal checks were being carried out on more than 20 parents volunteering to walk his 330 pupils to a carol service at nearby St John's church later this month.

Other primaries have instituted vetting for parents attending Christmas discos on school premises.

Parents will be vetted before they accompanying children to carol services (posed by models)

Mr McArthur said: 'We rely quite a lot on parental volunteers. It is a community school and parental engagement is very important to being part of the community.

'For the carol service they will need clearance which is basically something we can do on the day. You need to see details of who they are, where they live and make several phone calls.

'Parents accept it's about safeguarding the welfare of children. They accept it only has to be done once and it's a necessary chore.'

The case is an example of the confusion sewn by the Government's controversial new Independent Safeguarding Authority.

In October, it emerged any parent regularly volunteering to transport children on behalf of a school or sports club would have to be formally vetted.

Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at Kent University said: 'Once you institutionalise mistrust, you incite people to take these things further and further, finding new areas to implement criminal record checks.

'It becomes a badge of responsibility and a symbolic ritual. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense.'

A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokesman said: 'There is currently no legal requirement for parents to be checked in this way.

'We want to take a common sense approach to this and allow headteachers to use their professional judgment and experience in deciding whether a CRB disclosure is necessary.

'Our guidance recommends that schools obtain a CRB check for parents only when they volunteer at the school on a regular basis. This is defined as three or more times in a 30 day period.

'It is not now, nor will it ever be, Government policy to vet parents attending carol concerts or nativity plays with their children.'